Word Origin & History

go O.E. gan "to go," from W.Gmc. *gai-/*gæ- (cf. O.Fris. gan, M.Du. gaen, Ger. gehen), from PIE *ghei-, perhaps connected to Skt. jihite "goes away," Gk. kikhano "I reach, meet with," but there is not general agreement on cognates. The O.E. past tense was eode, of uncertain origin but evidently once a different word (perhaps connected to Goth. iddja); it was replaced 1400s by went, formerly past tense of wenden "to direct one's way" (see wend). In northern England and Scotland, however, eode tended to be replaced by gaed, a construction based on go. In modern English, only be and go take ...their past tenses from entirely different verbs. The word in its various forms and combinations takes up 45 columns of close print in the OED. The noun sense of "a try or turn at something" is from 1825; meaning "something that goes, a success" is from 1876. Verbal meaning "say" emerged 1960s in teen slang. Going to "be about to" is from late 15c. Go for broke is from 1951, Amer.Eng. colloquial; go down on "perform oral sex on" is from 1916. That goes without saying (1878) translates Fr. cela va sans dire. Phrase on the go "in constant motion" is from 1843; go-between is 1598; go-getter is 1910, Amer.Eng., but goer, with essentially the same meaning, is late 14c. Goner "something dead or about to die" is first recorded 1850.